Neither Omnicom chief Wren nor IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky expressed concern about that issue when talking with analysts.

Even so, said Georgetown University marketing professor Charles J. Skuba, “The biggest brands out there are going to be quite demanding on conflicts. The larger the client, the more demanding they will be.”

What will the Attorney General say?

Of course, all these operational hurdles may be moot if the proposed merger fails to get the approval it needs from federal regulatory officials. And how likely is that? Opinions are divided.

“Bringing together the third- and fourth-largest advertising buyers will inevitably raise questions about market dominance, especially with projected revenues exceeding $25 billion,” Allen ventured.

Wren shrugged off the possibility of a regulatory kibosh—at least while talking to analysts. “The world isn’t divided into four companies,” he said. “You have things like Google, Facebook, Amazon… servicing people’s marketing needs.”

As ADWEEK reported Monday, Wren also expressed the hope that the incoming Trump administration will be “more friendly to business.”

Well, maybe. The president-elect plans to put forward Gail Slater as his pick for assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s antitrust division, and her record touches both sides of the political divide. Slater has worked as general counsel for the pro-tech-lobbying group Internet Association, which has taken a strong anti-regulatory stance. Slater has also served as economic advisor for J.D. Vance, who recently declared via his X account that “it’s time to break Google up.”

“I actually don’t think this [merger] is going to be a problem from a regulatory point of view,” said Ivan Pollard, marketing and communications center leader for the Conference Board. “I know that will be a slightly radical point of view, and not everybody will say that. I feel that there’s still enough competition in the market [that] needs aggregated providers.”

“The timing of this merger is spot on,” said Tim Malefyt, who teaches marketing at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business. “The current administration has moved to block large mergers such as among airlines, but the Trump administration is much less likely to halt the merger.”

Malefyt recalled that while Omnicom tried to merge with Publicis in 2013 and failed, this new union has stronger market-based arguments.

“[It] would significantly reduce costs and increase the amount of data available, gain access to a larger more diverse audiences, create better-targeted campaigns, and better understand audience behavior across different platforms,” he said.